Like a Cloud on Purpose
by Emma CS Me
Summary: In which slushie-ing hits epic scale.


**A/N: **Written for **hc_bingo**, the prompt: "bullying." Title comes from/song they sing is "We Are Golden," by Mika. Which I personally believe would be a perfect Glee song.

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Like A Cloud On Purpose**

Drip, drip.

Rachel can hear droplets of the ice cold raspberry slushie coming off her, hitting the stage floor and the puddle that is on the floor. She can see it dripping all over her fellow Glee members too, all of them soaked through. The crowd in front of them seem to be evenly divided in two: those laughing their heads off, and those cringing in embarrassment for them.

This is a nightmare.

Tina looks like she's about to cry in the middle of the stage. Puck and Santana look like they're about to explode in a righteous fury of vengeance (they probably wouldn't phrase it that way, but oh well). Kurt looks at how the red slushie has splattered all over his green costume, almost for offended by the 'fashion crime' than anything (Rachel will never be able to follow his rules of fashion), but that's just the way Kurt is. _Everyone_ looks various degrees of mortified and furious, and they stare down the teachers in the front-center row. Right now, they all seem too shocked to do anything.

Finn takes a step forward and grabs Rachel hand, squeezing it firmly. "It's okay," he says. It's probably not – this is about as big a calamity as it is possible for one of their performances to turn into – but it's nice that he's trying to reassure her. Rachel can't help but look up at the vat hanging above them, last remains of the raspberry water-ice falling down. Rachel's fairly certain a _lot_ of people would be needed to accomplish this – that vat looks heavy.

Are they really still so hated?

"This is a disaster," Quinn hisses, shaking slushie out of her hair. It lands on Mike's face, and he flinches.

"Hey!"

"Sorry."

Everyone looks around at each other. "This is what Hallie was going on about at practice," Santana hisses – Hallie Langbrook is Quinn's replacement head cheerio. "'The slushie-ing of the century.' Fucking bitch."

Rachel wants to call Santana out on her language, but Puck interrupts before she can. "The guys were saying they'd pull some shit at practice. Didn't much care. Fuckers."

Everyone kind of nods, and Artie wipes the slushie out of his eyes. "Did they have to use raspberry? Red? Because this whole thing wasn't _Carrie_ enough as is?"

"My money's on her for the major telekenetic massacre," Quinn says, smiling and indicating Tina.

"Oh, I'm trying. Believe me," Tina replies, her eyes narrowed but her voice cracking. Artie wheels up and takes her hand.

"...I have no idea what you guys are referring to," Finn admits, receiving obligatory 'You haven't seen _Carrie_?' stares from everyone. Except Brittany. "...this is bad?" Finn guesses in response to everyone's reaction.

"Yes, and clearly I am living with a social hermit who pees in a bottle," Kurt says, and Finn pouts a little. Rachel gives herself half a second to think that's adorable – only half a second, though, because they have more pressing concerns.

"Isn't this the bit where a teacher is meant to come rescue us?" Matt asks, which is a valid query.

"I thing they're all still freaking," Santana explains.

"Coach Sylvester seems to be collecting pixies on her fingers," Brittany says, prompting confused/'I wonder what it's like in Brittanyland, it must be nice there' looks from everyone. "She keeps poking the air," Brittany elaborates, and Rachel's eyes search the crowd for Ms. Sylvester, looking for an explanation. She finds it in the woman making eye-gouging motions at Hallie Langbrook.

Well. She can't say she expected that one.

"Guys, what are we going to do?" Rachel asks, and for a few seconds, no-one answers. They just stare.

It's Kurt who speaks up. "Fuck them all. We're the stars, and they're not worthy to lick this slushie off our boots. We're going to prove it, and even if we've got hyper-fattening red ice sticking to our bodies, we're going to show these losers what we are. We're going to sing."

Okay, there are a _lot_ of moments when Rachel does not like Kurt Hummel, but there are these moments where she kind of loves him. This is one of them.

"I second that. Any complaints?" she asks, looking toward Tina in the center of the stage. "Tina?"

The Asian girl briefly nods, saying, "Let's kick their asses." Everyone smiles. Artie grips her hand tighter, while Rachel walks up to briefly squeeze her other one, and Quinn reassuringly touches her on the shoulder. Then they all step back, letting Tina take the spotlight. On obvious show, dripping with raspberry slushie and still blushing with embarrassment, Tina begins to sing.

"Teenage dreams in a teenage circle, running around like a cloud on purpose..."


End file.
